DNC Posts Sexist Attack on Carly Fiorina

Carly Fiorina was almost universally acclaimed the winner of the Fox News debate Thursday night. She was also the only candidate who drew the attention of the Democratic National Committee on Twitter during the debate.

The text of the DNC tweet seems like standard boilerplate, but the gif of a little girl seemed tone deaf coming from the party that campaigned on the “war on women” a few years ago:

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Fiorina says her business experience prepared her to be president. But under her “leadership,” HP stock fell 53%. pic.twitter.com/wISVdxDyu0

For those that didn’t see the debate, Fiorina was dressed in a pink (rose colored) suit which really stood out next to the men on the stage. So the DNC’s decision to use a gif of a pigtailed little girl in a bright pink jacket in their tweet attacking Fiorina seems like an intentional, if petty, attempt to demean an accomplished adult woman.

The girl in the gif is from a Disney TV show called “Good Luck, Charlie.” Perhaps the selection of this gif was prompted by the implied play on words, i.e. Good Luck, Carly instead of Good Luck, Charlie. But the play on words doesn’t appear in the text of the tweet itself.

In any case, comparing a Presidential candidate and former Fortune 500 CEO to a 6 year-old girl still doesn’t seem advisable, especially for a party that campaigns on women’s equality. It’s the kind of thing that would quickly be called out as sexist and demeaning if, say, the RNC had done it to Hillary Clinton.